Marin L SchweizerDepartment of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of AmericaPLoS ONE 5:e11432. 2010

..We aimed to measure the clinical impact of appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy on mortality, while statistically adjusting for comorbidities, severity of illness and presence of virulence factors in the infecting strain...

Controlling for severity of illness in outcome studies involving infectious diseases: impact of measurement at different time points

Kerri A ThomDepartment of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USAInfect Control Hosp Epidemiol 29:1048-53. 2008

..Severity of illness is an important confounder in outcome studies involving infectious diseases. However, it is unclear whether the time at which severity of illness is measured is important...

Association between methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization and infection may not differ by age group

Adebola O AjaoDepartment of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USAInfect Control Hosp Epidemiol 34:93-5. 2013

..The risk of MRSA infection was far higher in those who were deemed to be at high risk and who were surveillance culture positive. Targeted MRSA active surveillance may be beneficial in guiding empiric anti-MRSA therapy...

..Contact precautions are a cornerstone of infection prevention but have also been associated with less healthcare worker (HCW) contact and adverse events. We studied how contact precautions modified HCW behavior in 4 acute care facilities...

Staphylococcus aureus colonization before infection is not associated with mortality among S. aureus-infected patients: a meta-analysis

Marin L SchweizerDepartment of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USAInfect Control Hosp Epidemiol 33:796-802. 2012

..The aim of this meta-analysis was to review and analyze the current literature to determine whether prior history of S. aureus colonization is associated with mortality among S. aureus-infected patients...